No company has signed up Tendulkar since his Century of Centuries. Is his brand aura on the wane?

:: Binoy Prabhakar

Even if you are cricket’s greatest overachiever, there is no escaping pressure. When Sachin Tendulkar recently collected his latest superlative — a century of centuries — the deed helped banish the pressure of ‘when’ that had been building up for a year. No sooner did he say “phew!” than a new pressure took the earlier one’s place: his retirement. The answer from the man himself, though “in a not Tendulkar-like way”, according to Suresh Menon, editor, Wisden India Almanack, was: “When I retire is something I will decide…” Menon broached the subject in a rather unflattering article earlier this week. “... the pressure on Tendulkar now is to keep playing so his minders can squeeze the last drop out of his huge commercial value,” he wrote. Menon called this the “flip side of the millions”. “High earning sportsmen make a Faustian deal with the money devil; they are paid sums beyond the dreams of avarice for a decade or two… the devil demands his part of the bargain. Keep playing. Keep bringing in the money,” he wrote. Moot Question It still does not the answer the critical question: when will Tendulkar call it a day? But if endorsements were the deciding factor, as Menon suggests, the answer would be 2014. All the 17 endorsement contracts in Tendulkar’s kitty run until then, according to his managers, World Sport Group (India) Pvt Ltd. Tendulkar remains among the highest-earning sportsmen in the country, second only to India captain MS Dhoni. But at least for now, there is no prospect of brands prolonging his career beyond 2014. No company has signed him up since his last milestone, belying the widely held expectation in the advertising fraternity. The only marketing event commemorating his achievement has come from beverages major Coca-Cola, which announced a rollout of 7.2 lakh cans featuring the cricketer. Sportswear major Adidas is preparing to launch a new marketing campaign featuring him in the first week of April. But both are existing sponsors of Tendulkar. Is it still early to rule out new sponsors, given that Tendulkar’s feat came about only on March 16? Advertising executives don’t think so. The buzz in the industry is that many companies were in talks with Tendulkar’s managers to make the most of his 100th century. Harish Krishnamachar, senior vice-president and country head of World Sport Group (India) had said the feat will not have any impact on Tendulkar’s valuation. But no name has arrived on the scene. That’s because Tendulkar has always been selective about his endorsements, according to Krishnamachar. “And we have never seen a milestone as a short-term opportunity given that our focus has been on creating a sustained long-term value for him,” he says. Tendulkar, says Krishnamachar, has been very categorical about what categories he will be associated with and what he will not. “We have a very good assessment of what he is comfortable with and we have stayed true to that.” The brands that Tendulkar has said he will not endorse are tobacco and alcohol, says Krishnamachar. Tendulkar is said to have turned down a multi-crore deal with liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s UB Group two years ago. No New Deals Krishnamachar says as far as any other category is concerned, it is something they “will consider as the opportunities present themselves”. But for now at least, there are few on the horizon. And all the existing contracts are many years old, even as much as 20 years in the case of Boost. The ‘newest’, if one can call that, is a deal with Coca-Cola signed in early 2011. Tendulkar’s last deals of note too were signed around then — a 9-crore contract with Pune developer Amit Enterprises and another with apparel maker S Kumars for 13 crore. Prashant Singh, director of Octagon India, a sports and entertainment marketing company, says it is true that there has been no frenzy over Tendulkar’s latest feat. “There won’t be any until companies realise what his [retirement] plans are,” he says. Singh says in one sense, Tendulkar, who turns 39 next month, is restricted by his own persona. “He has become the grand old man of Indian cricket… a la elder statesman than a player. That restricts more brands coming.” Singh says what is keeping new brands away could also be the sheer number of endorsements. “He is endorsing 17; where is the scope for more?” Yet, many brands have not renewed contracts (see adjoining chart) with Tendulkar. He also now has few brands that cater to the young, except Coca-Cola and Adidas, an important segment for marketers. This is the upshot, says Krishnamachar, of changing his portfolio of brands to reflect maturity and high-value categories. What about his brand value? Santosh Desai, MD and CEO of Futurebrands India, says it isn’t what it was a few years ago. “Clearly, Tendulkar is in the evening of his career.” Desai says the cricketer’s performance of late has been below par and because his century took a long time coming, there was fatigue associated with his feat. Taken together, it explains why Sachin hasn’t received new deals, he says. Whether Tendulkar wins new deals depends on how he evolves as a brand ambassador, says Desai. “We have to wait and see… there is no clue from his current endorsements.” Brands Tendulkar Endorses… All the deals are pre-existing; no new deals since the ‘Century of Centuries’ Aviva, Adidas, Amit Enterprises, Audemars Piguet, Boost, Coca-Cola, Canon, Castrol, Sach*, ITC Sunfeast, Jaypee Cement, Kaspersky, Luminous, RBS, Reynolds, S Kumars, Toshiba * Private label Kishore Biyani’s Future Consumer Products Ltd has created with Tendulkar Source: World Sport Group …And Those That Haven’t Renewed Contracts Pepsi, Action Shoes, MRF, Britannia, Fiat, TVS, Airtel, G-Hanz, Colgate-Palmolive, Philips, Visa, Ujala Techno Bright